Gibbs criticizes White House as too slow to react to IRS targeting

Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs criticized the Obama administration for being too slow to respond to news that the IRS targeted conservative and Tea Party groups ahead of the 2012 election.

“The tenor of this briefing would be different if the president had spoken about this on Saturday or Sunday and not on Monday,” Gibbs said Tuesday on Andrea Mitchell Reports, during White House Press Secretary Jay Carney’s afternoon briefing. “And if the president had spoken on Monday, less about losing patience for this, which is what I do with my 9-year-old, and used far more vivid language, and I think quite frankly come out and announced that there would be a commission made up of two former commissioners, IRS commissioners, Democrat—one appointed by a Democrat, one appointed by a Republican, that said, look, we’re going to deal with—the IRS is going to deal with how to deal with 501(c)s that have different political bents based on what the administration is or isn’t. And that’s always going to be the case.”